Page 11 Advertisements Column 1

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXVII, Issue 18066, 5 April 1919, Page 11

Ad Editorial from the “Maoriland Worker,” Wednesday, March 26, 1919. VOTE OUT the UOUOR TRAFFIC It to good neither to eat flesh nor to drink wine, nor do anything whereby thy brother stumtoleth, or is offended, or to made weak*—Apostle Paul. The people of the Dominion are faced with a question which, is 'to be decided by a referendum. This is whether the liquor trade as ii now exists shall continue or shall be voted out and compensation, not exceeding £4,500,000, paid to license-holders. This is ft question which vitally affects the people, and, above all, the working people, whose interests are the peculiar concern of this journal. For reasons which need not be gone into here, Labour will not be given an opportunity at the forthcoming poll of voting for State control of the traffic-the solution of the problem which Labour generally supports. The “ Maoriland Worker,” therefore, has no official policy on this subject. In these circumstances, this journal could take up a neutral attitude. But suoh an attitude is a. weak one. On all vital social questions, the “Maoriland Worker” will take up a positive attitude and never seek refuge in neutrality. The workers have a direct concern and interest in this question, and are entitled to vote as their consciences direot. This journal also is entitled to the expression of an opinion, which, in this case, is the opinion of the editor, given for what it is worth, but given also as an honest expression of a thoughtful Labour man seeking to do what is right for the Cause of Labour. I The liquor trade is a social evil; it is private enterprise In one of its worst forms. We are not fanatical on this question; we approach it with an open, unbiassed' mind, having the welfare of the people in view. Even were prohibition a proved evil, we would regard it as the lesser of two evils, if the open bar were the other. Hence our voice and our vote go against the Trade. We make no apolegy for declaring against a trade which stands in the way of social reform. We do not regard Drink as the one social evil, or even ns the worst; wo take the average Socialist view that drinking habits and drunkenness are caused very largely by poverty and a bad environment. But the Trade does not help to banish poverty or improve the environment. Hence it stands in the way of social reform, and we concede to the prohibitionist honestly seeking to promote his cause the right to be regarded as a social reformer. It is needless to expatiate on the evils of drink. These are known to all thinking men and women. Drink is an enemy of the workerone of the agencies which rob him of his hard-earned wages and deprive him of ability to think and to realise his true place in the social scheme of things. A sober people is better than a people given to the drink habit. .The drinker is not a good citizen; he becomes selfish and selfcentred and not fit to exercise his social duties. He may talk of his right to drink, hut he has no right to get drunk. At the present time he has freedom to get drunk-subject, of course, to certain penalties. That kind of individual freedom is totally opposed to the social freedom that Labour stands for. Prohibition can be seoured only by a majority vote. If a majority vote for it and drink is banished from these islands, all the true friends of Labour will rejoice. Doubtless the drink evil is fostered by vile social and economic conditions, but it helps in no way to improve these conditions. On the contrary, it renders them worse. 'Alcohol taken in excess is an insidious poison. It has its uses, no doubt, medicinally, and even in moderation as a social beverage, but the stern fact remains that numberless human beings are slaves to it. The workers are slaves to capitalism and landlordism—but liquor is a taskmaster worse in many respects to the poor victim who falls under its sway. The question cannot be regarded purely from an individual standpoint; man is his brother’s keeper, and the man who can drink and refrain from drink cannot shirk his social responsibility. He must take a stand for or against the traffic which piles up fortunes for a few on the degradation of the many. The liberty of the subject must be limited by the sooial wellbeing of the community. •«•». \ In the natural order of social progress, Labour may have looked to State Control as a remedy which would have eliminated the worst evils of the drink habit, and provided a half-way house to prohibition by weaning the people of the habit gradually. Owing, however, to the zeal of our Prohibition friends, the question has reached a stage of development when one answer alone can be given by the friends of Labour—and that is a straight-out vote against the Trade. The open bar is an open menace to society. It ruins thousands. It deprives many promising young men of their self-control; it paves the way to immorality, a careless way of living, and ultimate ruin. It is a deadly foe of home life; it fills the hospitals and the lunatic asylums. Drink is bad for health of mind and body; constantly indulged in it makes a man a weak, irrational creature, lacking judgment,, a clear brain,' a strong will, and moral fibre. These are facts so well authenticated that they are undeniable. It is not a private habit that prohibition seeks to abolish, but a social habit having wide and far-reaching effects, not merely on those who are the direct victims of the open bar, but on. the whole of society. Man cannot live unto himself alone; be ia a social being, with rights and duties and responsibilities. The liquor traffio makes for poverty, for disease, for insanity, for premature death. All these are anti-social evils and as suoh Labour must fight against them. The liqnor traffic is the bulwark of property and privileges, hence is no friend of Labour. Against the publican we have nothing to so,y; he himself is a victim of circumstances and would benefit by being deprived of a trade which cannot but make for social misery and suffering. To vote out the traffio is the clear duty of all who have the best interests of Labour at heart, and we call upon Labour men and women to do their duty on April 10th by striking out the top line and giving a death-blow; to one of the worst forms of production for profit.

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